Unspoken religious test

Scripps Howard: Mitt Romney was finally forced to give the speech he would rather not have delivered.

In it, he addressed the unpleasant fact that many voters, regardless of what the Constitution says about there being no religious test to hold office in this country, believe his Mormon faith somehow disqualifies him from the presidency.

It is of critical importance in Iowa, which in turn is of critical importance to Romney’s fortunes, where as many as 40 percent of Republican caucus-goers describe themselves as Christian conservatives. Many of them are deeply skeptical of Mormonism, deeming it something of a heretical cult.

They feel far more comfortable with former Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, who has insinuated the question of his rival’s faith into the campaign by deeming himself a “Christian leader” and ducking the question of whether Mormonism is a Christian religion or whether it is, in fact, a cult.

‘Common cause’

Thus, Romney took the stage at George H.W. Bush’s presidential library in Texas to affirm what most voters surely believe is self-evident in a serious candidate, that as president he would serve no one religion, group, cause or interest, but only “the common cause of the people of the United States.”

Still, it speaks poorly of our politics that Romney felt compelled to argue that his faith did not disqualify him from the presidency of a country for which “no religious test” for office is a central tenet.